CROP 20200918_Abtei_blauestunde_1707 1 copy

Art, Arts & Culture

An ancient German abbey has become a new destination for pilgrimage with Gerhard Richter’s stained glass

by Leo J. O’Donovan, S.J. March 26, 2021

Gerhard Richter dazzles us with beauty that will intimate for many what is indeed beyond all human imagining.

Art, Arts & Culture

A new HBO documentary shows us the power of Black art in America

by Ciaran Freeman February 12, 2021

“Black is not the absence of color. Black is a particular color,” the artist Kerry James Marshall tells us. The particularity of Blackness as it pertains to art is the backbone of this documentary.

Emanuel Leutze’s “Washington Crossing the Delaware,” 1851 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Art, Arts & Culture

Patriotic paintings we can be proud of on the 4th of July

by Leo J. O’Donovan, S.J. July 2, 2020

Leo. J. O’Donovan, S.J., makes a virtual visit to the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Gerhard Richter is arguably the most famous living artist. “Betty,” painted in 1977, is one of several portraits of his daughter (Museum Ludwig/The Met Breuer).

Art, Arts & Culture

Saying goodbye to a master: a virtual visit to Gerhard Richter at the Met Breuer

by Leo J. O’Donovan, S.J. May 15, 2020

Richter, born in 1932 in Dresden, is arguably the most famous living artist.

From left, clockwise: “The Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy” by Jen Norton; “The Visitation” by James B. Janknegt; “Mary, Undoer of Knots” by Annie Vaeth; and a traditional painting of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (iPhoto).

Art, Arts & Culture

Catholic art for your home doesn’t have to be cheesy

by Sarah Neitz April 17, 2020

Hanging religious art shakes up class-based ideas about how our home should look.

Ramos Martinez, ‘Calla Lily Vendor’ (photo: The Whitney Museum of Art)

Art, Arts & Culture

The stunning (and underappreciated) Mexican influence on American art

by Leo J. O’Donovan, S.J. April 15, 2020

In the early 20th century, American artists were intoxicated by the way Mexican muralists transformed their people’s struggle for justice into narrative imagery.

Art, Arts & Culture

‘Ancient Nubia Now’ combines aesthetic brilliance with a political challenge

by Leo J. O’Donovan, S.J. December 20, 2019

More painful, though not treated in the exhibition, is the current situation of Sudan, which only became independent from British colonial rule in 1956.

Photo courtesy of Holy Angels Catholic Church

Art, Arts & Culture

The ‘Holy Angels’ mural heralds the Gospel and one Chicago church‘s vibrant history

by Leo J. O’Donovan, S.J. December 13, 2019

Since 1990 a vibrant black parish has worshiped before the marvelous mural by Engelbert Mveng, S.J.

Art, Arts & Culture

‘The Warmth of Other Suns’ exhibit teaches us how to imagine crisis

by Leo J. O’Donovan, S.J. October 25, 2019

“The Warmth of Other Suns: Stories of Global Displacement” is a lesson on how art can awaken us to the unprecedented crisis of refugees and displaced persons now numbering 70.8 million.